Produce The Note

Meet Judge Arthur M. Schack of the New York State Supreme Court for Brooklyn and Staten Island.  Judge Schack is actually holding banks accountable for foreclosures.  He is meticulously going through foreclosure papers filed by banks and mortgage servicers looking for errors.  He found a representative of Deutsche Bank who had signed papers “claiming to be the vice president of two different banks¹.”  He has thrown out “46 of the 102 foreclosure motions before him in the past two years¹.”  Judge Schack said, “I won’t accept their comedy of errors¹.” 

Judge Schack looks for errors and makes sure that the bank who is foreclosing actually owns the house.  Many times he has seen that the bank doesn’t even own the house.  When these loans were packaged and repackaged again, much of the paperwork was misplaced and signatures went missing.  If the banks can’t prove ownership of the home then they can’t foreclose on the loan. 

Judge Schack’s approach to foreclosure has become a revolutionary idea to some judges.  Not because this is a new idea but because he is actually holding corporations accountable for their actions.  I wish Judge Schack was handling my foreclosure! 

Judge Schack’s idea of demanding proof of ownership reminds me of the “Produce the Note” strategy promoted by Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur² earlier this year.  If my memory serves me correctly, Kaptur urged her constituents to stay in their foreclosed homes until the banks produced the note and proved ownership.  There is also a website with more information about producing the note³. 

Clearly Judges and homeowners are starting to understand the games played by the mortgage industry.  A way to beat the banks at their own game is to have them prove ownership first!

Sources:
1.   A ‘Little Judge’ Who Rejects Foreclosures Brooklyn Style. Michael Powell. New York Times. 8/30/09.
      URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/nyregion/31judge.html

2.  Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur’s website
      URL: http://www.kaptur.house.gov/

3.  The Consumer Warning Network. Produce The Note Page. Found 8/31/09
     URL: http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.com/2008/06/19/produce-the-note-how-to/